HumpLinks: Non-oppo tacos are getting Cron-ic

C.J. Cron is feasting on home cooking, served up by the meager chefs of the Cincinnati Reds. We get one more game of this, so maybe today holds more fun?

Have some Home Run Cron-icles Links:

Everywhere In Baseball

Trout Porn: Some people do my work for me. Earlier this season i was posting some Trout career WAR info and projecting out his season. USA Today does my update for me, as Trout surpassed 9 existing Hall of Fame members in career WAR this month alone!. You might have heard of Dizzie Dean? Lou Brock?.........

More Trout: Trout suffers from being just too good. Tom Verducci of SI says it crisper than I have even been thinking it, and I have been thinking this for weeks and weeks. (Bryce Harper to Trevor Story to Gary Sanchez): "Trout is better than the next best player by a margin greater than that of any other athlete in any major sport. Every so often, like the tides, stories will wash up about a player on a hot streak who is “in the conversation” about best player in baseball. Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, Orioles third baseman Manny Machado and others all have received this forced treatment from the media, eager as we are to wear the halo of having picked the next great stock. But one thing never changes: Trout is the gold standard."..........I should point out that Trout's July/August swoon is now over. He is batting .469 over his last 9 games, with an OPS of 1.270. He needs some media slavering, though. I still want to see a 3 home run game...........

Esco Cometh: Yunel Escobar is about to return, set for Friday. Sosh's plan might be to move Cowart to SS, playing backup to Andrelton Simmons. Limiting Cowart's plate appearances and randomly shoving him up to bat is a Sosh developmental style we have seen before. As are the inevitable results...........

Syncronicity: H/T reddit. Max Scherzer, Freddie Galvis Citizens Bank Park and doubles down the right field line are locked in one of those Star Trek time loops. This is how Scherzer lost a no-hitter in the 6th inning last year. And this is how Scherzer lost a no-hitter in the 6th inning this year. Spooky shit.............

Te-Ciao: The Tim Tebow circus had it's media tease yesterday and things were decidedly mixed, (no, seriously, very mixed) which does not bode well for any prospect of an MLB career. He showed serious power during pretend at-bats, but suffered mightily against ex-MLB-fringe pitching. And reports are that his stance is jacked up and destined for trouble. I watched some video of his outfield work and all I could think of was Little League ("He looked dreadful in the outfield"). Then again, who am I kidding? Tebow is the flame to the media moth. There is money to be mined there regardless of the outcome. We will see more of this..........For his part, Tebow see his day as a glass 3/4's full. I especially like how he is looking for a team that will commit to moving him up the ladder and onto the MLB level, and he wants to see that plan ahead of time. Yeah. As if.........Final Tebow (for the day). Tim wants to ask "When did it become a bad thing to pursue your dreams?" Weill, Timmy, maybe the same day you decided to leverage celebrity and privilege to try and leap-frog candidates who have shown far more effort and commitment to their craft, suffering deplorable wages along the way, in your pursuit of getting attention from front office decision-makers?............

Crispy: Coco Crisp's plight in Oakland has come to an end, as Crisp has been traded to the Cleveland Indians. The Indians have 31 games left, and Crisp needs to play in 28 of them to trigger a bonus out of - now - the Indians. Odds are small, I'd gather..............

Gettin' Puiggy With It: So Yasiel Puig was placed out onto the waiver wire. Kind of interesting, and a not unexpected next step. The Dodgers appear to be going kind of slow and methodically with their phasing out of their own "Mike Trout Clone". And Puig was claimed by somebody, unknown of course, also a not unexpected move. But now this triggers a Dodger decision. If the Dodgers pull him back they are stuck with him for the rest of the year.  They could call no joy which would let Puig walk as a fully paid free agent.  Or they could surrender to trade terms. The path of least resistance is to pull him back and live with him stashed down in the minors, and figure something else out in December...........

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The Duffle Bag

Jeffrey Loria, almost the worst at selling tickets, is now very busy preventing season ticket holders from buying season tickets. Because Jeffrey Loria...........Ok, this is cool. I normally snark at people who go way overboard for a used $8 baseball. But this is celebration over HOW the fan makes the catch..........No no no! No fooling me you trickster Upton, you.............Hacky sack baseball............Todd Frazier is getting a little chippy as free agency approaches. Maybe he is playing the home town card?...........Public Service Announcement: FanGraphs has released a new Splits tool. Should be fun. Look for results on these pages in the future...........

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